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The Updated CPA Exam Arrives: The First Ten Days Welcome Us to a New Era

More than a decade after computerization, the Certified
Public Accountant (CPA) Examination has finally experienced its next wave of
evolution. After enduring years of criticism that it was rooted in tradition
and not pragmatic progress, the AICPA, on April 1, 2017, rolled out the new exam. The new version strives to conform to current academic
standards and seeks to incorporate the more analytical workforce requirements
that accountants require. To quote the late rapper 2Pac: “Things will never be
the same, that’s just the way it is.” The way it is indeed.

The exam focuses more on skills such as analysis and
evaluation than memorization, a dramatic change from prior versions. The theory
behind the changes is the exam follows the career requirements
of a recent CPA graduate, which are more focused on analyzing data trends, rather than
data input. The exam structure strives to
be more like its multiple choice sections, adaptive, and capable of imitating
the sharp turns in the accounting profession. The AICPA is “already thinking
about the new version,” Decker said.

Summation of Changes

Sections

The format for the exam remains
largely the same, with four parts: Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) and
Regulation (REG), Auditing and Attestation (AUD), and Financial Accounting and
Reporting (FAR). However, BEC and REG have moved to four hour exams instead of
three, for a total of 16 hours of testing.

Content

Every exam will have a lower number
of multiple choice questions and a higher number of task based simulations,
which now encompass 50 percent of a candidate’s exam score (BEC simulations
account for 35 percent with the written communications section accounting for
the other 15).

Availability of Exam and Testing Breaks

There will be 40 more days of
available testing each calendar year and a new 15 minute standardized break
during each section of the exam that will not count against the candidate’s
total testing time.

Grandfather Clause

All completed sections of the exam
prior to April 1, 2017, will carry over as part of the normal 18 month test
completion period.

Accounting Workforce

Will the scores from the new CPA exam structure more
adequately reflect a candidate’s knowledge base that translates to success in
the workforce? Will it help to reduce the historic
levels of talent shortage in the accounting industry? Will pass rates
remain constant as they have over the course of the exam’s history? Answers to
all of those questions will become clearer in time. Ten days in and counting…

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